Course Hero and CodePath.org team up to pioneer a new category of internships that connect first-generation, minority underclassmen with tech training and career mentoring
CodePath.org, the national nonprofit working to transform computer science education for underrepresented students, announced the expansion of its pre-internship program, designed to help rising college juniors build the foundational skills, experience and access to succeed in software engineering and tech careers. Built in collaboration with Course Hero, an online learning platform for course-specific study resources, the paid pre-internship will begin June 7th and lay the foundation for a more diverse tech talent pipeline.
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“Demand for tech talent may be booming, but the relatively small supply of coveted full-time internships can too often become a barrier for underrepresented learners attending institutions outside the top-ranked engineering programs,” said Michael Ellison, CEO and co-founder of CodePath.org. “This work is about creating a new breed of career preparation experiences that give underserved learners a leg up, while building a platform for mid-sized companies to create a more equitable and inclusive approach to career development.”
Over the course of a 10-week program with Course Hero, an initial cohort will gain access to CodePath’s full-stack web application development course and individualized mentoring from Course Hero employee volunteers, including ten full-time engineers. Each Course Hero mentor will help their assigned cohort member navigate technical workshops and a collaborative capstone project that will help cultivate both soft skills and technical development.
While the tech industry is facing a talent shortage of 500,000 workers, just 7.4 percent of tech employees are African-American, and 8 percent are Latinx. At the same time, Black and Latinx students are approximately one third more likely to drop out of computer science programs than their White peers.
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CodePath.org is working to solve this multifaceted challenge by transforming the way computer science education is delivered. Through its network of employer partners like Course Hero, the program is designed to democratize access to career mentoring and technical interview prep to help aspiring engineers from underrepresented backgrounds land competitive tech industry roles.
“As someone who knows firsthand what it’s like coming up as a young Black man in tech, I believe companies in our industry should feel a profound sense of responsibility to contribute their time, talent and resources to address the inequities that persist in education and our technology-driven economy,” said Emmanuel Matthews, group technical program manager for artificial intelligence at Course Hero. “This work is about helping companies of every size to build a more inclusive economy and tech workforce, starting with their talent supply chain.”
Course Hero is the first education technology business to invest in CodePath’s programs, which are proven to close gaps in computer science degree completion and expand tech industry career opportunities for underrepresented and low-income students. Since 2015, CodePath.org has trained more than 10,000 computer science college students across 200 universities.
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